oppn parties The Congress Needs To Take Some Hard Decisions

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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The Congress Needs To Take Some Hard Decisions

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-08-24 08:25:29

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meets later in the day today. Among other things, the leadership issue has been put firmly on the agenda by two separate developments. In the first, Sonia Gandhi has written to CWC members expressing her inability to continue as interim chief any longer. In any case, she has held the reins temporarily for more than one year now. The second development was the unprecedented letter, signed by nearly 300 prominent Congressmen including some ex-CMs, ex-ministers and MPs, that was sent to Sonia Gandhi in which the signatories expressed sadness at the state of drift in the party and called for corrective action. The party has officially denied having received any such letter.

It is reported that despite the running old guard versus young Turks feud in the party, the said letter has been signed by Congressmen cutting across the generational divide. The signatories include Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Veerappa Moily, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Milind Deora, Shashi Tharoor, Jitin Prasada, Sandeep Dikshit and Manish Tiwari, among others. These leaders have drawn Sonia Gandhi's attention to the fact that the party has not been able to offer a calibrated response to the several crises facing the country and has not been able to capitalize on the mistakes of the NDA government. The said that the party was in decline and immediate action needs to be taken to arrest it.

It is extremely sad that a national party like the Congress, which has experienced leaders, an all-India infrastructure and most importantly, still gets nearly 20 percent of the popular votes in the general elections, has allowed itself to be pushed to the wall. None of its responses since the 2014 defeat at the hands of the BJP have resonated with the people. It has not been pro-active and has allowed the BJP to dictate terms. The biggest folly the party has committed is to project Rahul Gandhi as the alternative to Narendra Modi. That question was settled way back in 2014 when an out of depth Rahul was taken to the cleaners. Yet the party persisted with him in 2019 and suffered the consequences. It has still not learned the lesson and that is evident in the way many Congress leaders want him to return as the Congress president.

Rahul Gandhi is clearly not cut out for the job. He has often picked the wrong issues and his responses to the right issues have seldom clicked with the people. Hence, if demanding proof of the surgical strikes was a howler (and the BJP lost no time in branding him a spokesman for Pakistan), continuing with the refrain chowkidar chor hai was a bigger mistake, especially when most polls showed that a minuscule percentage of people actually believed that Modi could be corrupt. Despite advice from the old guard in the party to resist from making personal attacks on Modi, Rahul has persisted with the strategy and it has taken his stock down further. Rahul's popularity is at its lowest even as Modi's has soared, despite the alleged mishandling of the economy, the coronavirus and migrant workers' crises.

The Congress has to look for a person from outside the Gandhi family to lead it. But is the Congress capable of doing that? The Gandhi family name is the only joining glue for the various leaders who form the Congress. They cannot take orders from anyone else. So what will happen in the CWC meeting? Everyone will first appeal to Sonia Gandhi to reconsider her decision to step down. As she is not likely to agree, they will ask her to continue until an alternative is found (they could not find one in one year and will hope to do so in a few months). There will be a chorus of appeals to Rahul to take over. He will obviously refuse, for now. In the end, Sonia will consent to continue for a couple of months and ask the CWC to find a new president by then. As usual, there will be no immediate solution, or even a glimmer of hope for a solution and the party will keep hurtling down towards the path of self-destruction. Any other scenario will be a pleasant surprise for those who believe that a strong opposition is absolutely essential for a vibrant democracy. 

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